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SilverSheriff
2008-02-10, 10:40 PM
Hey Playgrounders, I'm new to DM'ing (and the forums :P) and I've been a bit annoyed of my inability to draw maps that are satisfactory to any of the players and my own tastes.

I was just wondering if you could point me towards a high quality, preferably free, World Map Generator.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

- Your new associate; the Black Pants Guy.

Icewalker
2008-02-10, 10:43 PM
Well, I use AutoREALM (http://www.autorealm.org/) for mine. It doesn't generate them, but it is a good program for making a world. It has a fractal line drawer, so you can draw lines that automatically get rough edges to look like coastline. I've run into minor issues, but nothing I haven't managed to get around.

crimson77
2008-02-11, 12:20 AM
Hexmapper is great and free. I use it for my campaigns. Check it out at this site. (http://home.paonline.com/zaikoski/ak/TOOLS.HTM)

Iudex Fatarum
2008-02-11, 12:40 AM
Are there any that work on either a mac or at least non-windows?

Darth Mario
2008-02-11, 12:55 AM
Well, I actually run AutoREALM on a mac, using DarWINE. Works perfectly, as long as you can right-click.

DarWINE is free, and can be found here. (http://darwine.sourceforge.net/) It's software that allows windows apps to be run on a mac, as long as they don't use DirectX.

FlyMolo
2008-02-11, 09:56 AM
Are there any that work on either a mac or at least non-windows?

Inkscape. Works great for me. I don't have a linkie atm, but it works on my mac laptop.

Newtkeeper
2008-02-11, 10:23 AM
Myself, I just take a *real* continent or location, and alter it until it isn't immediately recognizable. Then I add cities, rivers, etc. with whatever image editor I like (GIMP is nice, and free).

My last campaign was set in Newfoundland, rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. No one caught it!

Lord Tataraus
2008-02-11, 10:29 AM
Myself, I just take a *real* continent or location, and alter it until it isn't immediately recognizable. Then I add cities, rivers, etc. with whatever image editor I like (GIMP is nice, and free).

My last campaign was set in Newfoundland, rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. No one caught it!

I love doing that! And because I'm amazing at geography and no one else in my group is, I can get away with a lot of obscure nations smushed together.

Fizban
2008-02-11, 10:56 AM
This one's pretty nifty: http://direpress.bin.sh/tools/world.cgi.

Jolly Steve
2008-02-11, 11:07 AM
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but here's one that I made:

www.apolitical.info/webgame/map

Neek
2008-02-11, 11:15 AM
Hey Playgrounders, I'm new to DM'ing (and the forums :P) and I've been a bit annoyed of my inability to draw maps that are satisfactory to any of the players and my own tastes.

I was just wondering if you could point me towards a high quality, preferably free, World Map Generator.

I find, unless you're this guy (http://naeddyr.googlepages.com), making high-quality maps with generators or with imaging programs is quite a skill that requires some good proficiency.

I prefer doing them by hand. I'll use a fractal map generator to create an idea, and then copy it into paper:

Viz.: Fractal (http://img.penguindeskjob.com/fractalmap.png)
Drawn: this (http://img.penguindeskjob.com/map.png)

AKA_Bait
2008-02-11, 11:41 AM
Myself, I just take a *real* continent or location, and alter it until it isn't immediately recognizable. Then I add cities, rivers, etc. with whatever image editor I like (GIMP is nice, and free).

My last campaign was set in Newfoundland, rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. No one caught it!

To this end, I strongly recommend National Geographic's Map Generator (http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/). No one recognizes the map of some central section of Central America even without changes.

tsuuga
2008-02-11, 01:23 PM
This forum (http://forum.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48) has several awesome tutorials. I can't seem to find the one I used though, maybe I've got it bookmarked at home.